A routine check by county probation officers at a Butler apartment Wednesday led to a not-so-routine discovery: 30 grams of unpackaged heroin, more than 60 grams of crack cocaine and other drug contraband, authorities said.

The seized narcotics could fetch an estimated $15,000 on the street, according to county Chief Detective Tim Fennell, who heads the Butler County Drug Task Force.

The task force arrested three men, all drug felons, who investigators believe were using the apartment in the 200 block of West Brady Street to sell drugs.

Charged with multiple counts of felony drug possession are Floyd B. Carpenter, 35, of Pittsburgh; and Mark A. Cook, 35, and Sahire A. Walker, 40, both of New Castle.

All three defendants were placed in the Butler County Prison to await arraignment. Fennell called their arrests significant.

“We believe this to be the hub of their operation in the city,” he said.

Charges, he added, are pending against the apartment tenant, 31-year-old Michael M. Miller, who was the target of the home compliance check about 10:15 a.m.

Miller was not home but he was to turn himself in to authorities, Fennell said.

County probation officers found the three defendants at the home. They also noticed what appeared to be drugs and related paraphernalia, according to court documents.

The officers notified Fennell, who eventually obtained a search warrant.

The search turned up 61.2 grams of crack, investigators said, most of which was in the living room and some in a child's pink back pack.

The same back pack contained 34 stamp bags of suspected heroin.

Officers said they also seized from the apartment 30 grams of unpackaged heroin and 7 grams of powder cocaine that was inside a lock box in a bedroom, and 10 additional stamp bags of suspected heroin under a hat in the bedroom.

Additional items found were 2,000 unused stamp bags for packaging heroin, documents said, and two digital scales.

Authorities also confiscated $1,275 in currency that was in a pair of jeans that apparently belonged to Carpenter. A search of Cook found him with $460 in currency.

The task force only last month arrested Carpenter along with two other men at a home on West New Castle in Butler where officers found a cache of suspected cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

He was jailed and later released on $30,000 bail on charges in that case which is pending in Butler County court.